This is my Idea
by rosiemontgomery1
Summary: Fantasy AU. Princess Winry of Amestris was bethrothed to Prince Edward of Xerxes from her birth. But this is not their idea of fun, or love, for that matter. Or is it? Based (very loosely) on the musical number "This is my Idea" from the Swan Princess.


_**Year 299 of the founding of the Kingdom of Xerxes**_

King Urey and Queen Sara of Amestris were overcome with joy. After years of waiting, the gods had finally granted them a child—a beautiful baby with eyes as blue as the morning sky.

They named the baby Winry, and organized a grand feast to celebrate her birth. Among the guests of honor were King Hohenheim and Queen Trisha, from the neighboring kingdom of Xerxes. They brought along their firstborn, one-year old Edward, and Queen Trisha was expecting a second child as well.

With the birth of Winry, a dream the two couples had held in their hearts for a long time finally took shape: their desire to unite both small kingdoms into a single one, full of prosperity and peace. Indeed, no sooner were the festivities over, than both royal couples gathered together and forged a plan. Winry would be married to Edward once they became of age. It wouldn't do, of course, for them to feel as if they were marrying a stranger, so they decided it would be convenient to bring Winry to Xerxes every summer once she was old enough to understand the state of things, so the soon-to-be spouses could get to know each other. The future certainly was looking great for both kingdoms.

_**Year 305 of the founding of Xerxes**_

"Go on, Ed," Queen Trisha urged her seven-year -old son. "Go and greet Princess Winry."

Prince Edward looked up with a tortured face at his mother, but she refused to pay attention to him and instead shoved him gently in the direction of their new visitor.

The said Princess Winry was standing poised with her hands clasped together_. And with such a bratty face, too! _thought Ed. He approached her slowly, as if getting too close to her would result in his intoxication. He could hear the snickers behind his back and almost_ feel_ the knowing looks his parents exchanged with the kings of Amestris… How could this girl just stand there so calmly? He hated every minute of it.

He suddenly felt four expectant pairs of eyes on him. What? Oh, he was supposed to bow. He proceeded to do so while mumbling half-heartedly, almost to himself, "Welcome to Xerxes, Princess Winry. I'm very pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you, Prince Edward." Her voice was so chirpy and annoying. She curtsied, and quickly shoved her right hand into his face. The little brat wanted her to _kiss _it! _No way!_

He pushed her hand away and turned around to walk back to safety, when he felt a heavy weight fall onto his back, pinning him to the ground. She had thrown herself on top of him! Not only that, but she was kicking him and biting him with such violence, he couldn't believe this was the little Miss Polite he had seen a moment ago. What the _heck_! He thrashed fiercely, but to no avail. It wasn't until a moment later when the princess' parents walked into the scene to separate them, that her little hands finally let go of his shoulders_. This is gonna be awful_, thought Ed, wiping blood off his chin.

_**Year 306 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Ed was at his wits' end. The brat had followed him around for hours asking him to play with her, and when he dared refuse, she had pulled out a metal wrench from her bag and threatened to knock him out with it. Believing it to be idle threats, Edward once more declined, and not a second later felt the instrument collide with his forehead. From then on, Ed decided that hiding was the only option. Spending three hours crouched under the library desk was not his idea of a summer vacation, but anything to get away from _her_.

_**Year 308 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Ed was bored. But more than that, he felt—what was that word he'd read in a book the other day—_forlorn_. And it was all because of that stupid girl. She had finally gotten the message that he didn't want to play with her, but then she'd grabbed his younger brother Alphonse as a playmate instead. And to Ed's dismay, Al didn't seem to mind. On the contrary. Just a while ago, when he had gone down the stairs for a snack, he had seen them playing in the throne room. Apparently somewhere along the last year Winry had learned that metal thing she carried around wasn't only for knocking people unconscious, and she was proceeding to fix with it Al's favorite toy truck—which had recently broke down—much to Al's obvious delight. He had not liked that one bit. Al was _his_ younger brother, not hers. If she really wanted a baby brother, she should ask those parents of hers, who always seem to give her everything. Besides, how could Al have more fun playing with a girl like _her_, than with his own older brother? It was something Edward just couldn't understand.

_**Year 311 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Ed wiped the sweat from his brow and stretched out his arms. He had finally finished writing that investigation paper. Years of hiding in libraries had made him something of a bookworm, and he had developed a great love for the sciences, particularly Physics and Chemistry. Sometimes he became so absorbed over a book or an investigation he was conducting, that he snapped out of it until well into the night. And he'd skipped dinner, too.

Ed was walking down to the kitchen, hoping to find some leftovers, when he suddenly heard noises coming from the behind the kitchen door. It was really late, even for the servants. What was going on?

His curiosity won him over and he opened the door just a crack. What he saw took him completely by surprise.

Winry was sitting on one of the chairs, expertly bandaging a young boy, who'd apparently wounded his leg. The urchin was sitting on top of the kitchen table, nodding his head to her soft voice, and Winry was chatting away while bandaging with the utmost care—where those really the hands that'd left so many bumps on the back of his head?

And he knew the boy. He was the son of one of the chambermaids, a wiry little thing who never paid attention to anybody and who'd been confined to the servant's quarters and the stables until he learned to behave himself. He was always picking a fight with someone or other, and getting bruised in the process. In other words, a troublemaker. Yet here was Winry tending to him as if he were the King himself.

Ed waited for what seemed like an eternity, until Winry finally came out of the kitchen, a smile of contentment etched on her face. At least, until she saw Edward standing by the door.

"W-What are you doing here?" she inquired, eyes open in surprise. Ed scratched the back of his head. How should he phrase it? "That boy", he murmured, pointing at the kitchen door, " you healed him."

Winry crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "I did. So what?"

"Why? You're a princess. You don't need to do that."

Winry stared at the floor for a few seconds, and then shrugged. "I don't know. It's what I do."

Ed leaned back in astonishment. "What you _do_?"

Winry lifted her eyes to his and smiled slightly. "I fix things. He needed my help, so I fixed him."

Ed started to feel his cheeks warm slightly when he saw her smile. She looked so _happy_. He let out a half-hearted laugh and shook his head, as if to shake off the feeling. "You're such a freak. People aren't machines, you know."

Winry pouted and walked out of the room, but turned around before slamming the door, and faced Ed once more. "But they need fixing too, _you know_."

And for the second time that night Ed was left feeling utterly bewildered.

_**Year 312 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Winry suddenly came up to him, as he was going out of his room for a walk. "Thank you, Ed," she said, her eyes shining. When Ed shot her a confused look, she looked down at her feet and smiled shyly. "Al said you were the one that fixed the old shed and turned it into a workshop for me."

Ed glanced at his hands with satisfaction. He'd spent the entirety of winter and a good part of spring cleaning out that old shed, fixing it up, and preparing it so that it would look like a real workshop. Even though Al had insisted on helping, and so had the servants, this was something he had to do on his own. He was quite happy with the end result.

"It's nothing," he insisted. "It's so you can keep fixing your things—and your people, right?" She looked up at him, astonished, and then he smirked. "Besides, you were always doing stuff in my rooms anyway and making a huge mess…better to have you out of the way with that." He saw with satisfaction as her face grew red with anger, and she stomped down her foot. "EDWARD OF XERXES, BE GLAD I DON'T HAVE MY WRENCH WITH ME RIGHT NOW!" And Winry stormed away, but Edward couldn't help but notice the small spring in her step as she did so.

_**Year 314 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Edward threw his coat onto the bed and sat upon it, his fists balled with anger. Then he placed both hands to his face and let out a long string of curses. _**He was so stupid.**_

He'd just had his first big fight with Alphonse in years. It had been about something stupid, as usual, but this time it had grown into something much bigger. Al had been chiding him for his lack of responsibility, and he'd suddenly snapped. He'd yelled back at his brother that he didn't know what he was talking about, didn't know how much pressure was on Ed because he was the crown prince, had no idea because he was just the second born and _**everything **_had always been _**so easy**_ for him.

A second later he felt a hand strike him across the face. Al, who then turned to him with such a hurt look in his eyes, more painful to Ed than whatever physical blow Al could have inflicted. And then Ed had walked away like the coward he was.

He heard a soft knock on the door, and his spirits lifted for a moment, until a female voice murmured: "Ed?"

_Winry_. Of all people.

"Go away," Ed called out, burying his face in his hands again. But a second later he heard his doorknob click open. _That girl._ She never listened. And he had locked himself in, too.

But no keys were match to the deftly tools that Winry was now hiding in her pocket without showing the least remorse at violating someone's privacy. Instead, she approached Ed's window on the other side of the room and looked out, placing her hand gently on the windowsill.

A few moments of silence passed before she spoke.

"You should go and apologize to him."

Ed groaned into his hands. "This is of no concern to you, Winry."

_Now_ she turned to look at him, her eyes ablaze. "Of no concern to _me_? Al's my friend too, you know!"

Ed just stared at his feet and shook his head helplessly.

"Ed, you have to go to him! You can't let something like this break you apart—"

"_Something like this_?" Ed interrupted, and let out a bitter laugh. "You don't understand. I… said such terrible things to him. I _hurt_ him, Winry. He might never forgive me. Actually, I don't think I deserve his forgiveness."

Ed heard Winry suck in a breath, and he expected a wrench to come flying his way any moment now. To his complete surprise, he felt a warm pair of hands close over his own instead.

"Don't say that," Winry said, in a tone of voice that indicated she was close to tears. Indeed, when Ed lifted his head to look at her, he could see a silvery line of tears running down her face. That, complete with her bright eyes looking down on him with great sadness, left him feeling like the most worthless creature on the planet. He would have preferred the wrench a million times over.

"Ed," she said, his name barely a whisper on her lips, "Al loves you. I know he does. He speaks to me of you so often, and I just can tell—he admires you immensely." She lifted herself up and released his hands. "Which is why I tell you that you're just being an ignorant fool for not recognizing it and believing something as stupid as a fight will lessen his affection for you."

She walked away gently, as if to leave, but before she did so she turned to face Ed one last time, and her eyes shone with danger. "AND IF YOU DON'T GO AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT I'M GONNA BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU, HEAR ME?"

And then she walked out of the room as calmly as if she hadn't just issued a death warning.

In spite of everything, Ed felt a bittersweet smile creep up his lips. _Godammit, that woman_. With all her weeping and yelling, she was right. He just couldn't let this get the better of him. He stood up and grabbed his coat to look for Al, trying his hardest to forget how his heart had skipped a beat when he felt Winry's hands on his.

_**Year 315 of the founding of Xerxes**_

Ed looked out on the street as the royal carriage drove on, trying to seem bored, but mostly trying to hide the way his heart was doing this weird thing on his chest. It had suddenly started to beat faster, for no apparent reason. _Well,_ thought Ed, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the blond-haired girl sitting next to him on the carriage, _who am I kidding, there is a reason._

One he couldn't seem to understand, though. Ever since the beginning of summer, he had felt so strange around Winry. It was all her fault, though, for looking so different from the last time he'd seen her.

Or did she? Her hair looked about the same shade and length, and her eyes were still the same silvery blue. But for some reason, Ed just couldn't see her the same way he had all those years before. She looked so…dare he say _pretty_? He snuck another glance at her, pausing slightly at her delicate curves. Yes, she was definitely prettier than he'd ever seen her before.

Nevertheless, that still didn't explain his crazy reactions to her. Edward had seen many beautiful women in his life. But none had affected him as much as this particular girl, who sat next to him waving at the crowd and smiling as though she hadn't a care in the world.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Ed saw a glint of silver. Without warning, an arrow shot out from one of the rooftops, aiming straight for the princess' back.

"GET DOWN!" Edward screamed, pushing Winry to the floor of the open carriage. He heard her yell, a cry of surprise but not of pain.

A moment later he felt an intense heat sear through his right shoulder. He hit his head on something hard, and everything went black.

When Edward opened his eyes again, he was on a well lit room he soon recognized as his own. His head hurt horribly, and his shoulder felt on fire.

"You're awake!" a familiar voiced cried out.

"Winry!" He lifted himself from the bed with a jolt, only to fall back writhing with pain.

"Ed!" chided the princess, "you mustn't move! Your right shoulder… an arrow pierced it badly."

An arrow! Ed turned his head to the princess. "Winry…someone tried to kill you."

She nodded, her eyes on the floor. "I know. But the guards were able to catch the killer…apparently he didn't move from his spot once he realized he hadn't hit his target, but the crown prince of Xerxes." She lifted her eyes to him and smiled. "Thank you for saving me, Ed."

Edward felt the heat quickly rising to his cheeks… and it wasn't from the fever. "Mhmm-mm," he muttered. Then his golden eyes trailed down the sheets for a moment, and he frowned. "But Winry, why would somebody want to kill you?"

Ed heard her let out a long sigh. "Apparently there are some people who do not approve of the union between the two countries. Some who believe Amestris will be nothing but a burden to the country of Xerxes."

Ed balled his hands into fists. "That's just stupid!" he bellowed. "What would those people know, anyway?"

Winry assented in agreement. "Your father moved quickly and found out about the rebellion. Luckily the guy who shot you spoke up and almost all of the leaders have been captured already."

"That's good to hear." Ed relaxed a little into his pillows. He then looked up at Winry, whom, he just know realized, had bags under her eyes. "Winry, how long have you been here with me?"

Her eyes opened wide at the question and she blushed. "Not a long time." Something on her tone made Ed suspicious, though.

"Well, you better go to rest, okay? I'm all good now." He grinned at her for reassurance, and she smiled back, which set his heart on full throttle.

"I will," she assured him. "As soon as you fall asleep again."

Ed tried to protest, thinking there was no way he'd be able to sleep with her staring at him, when he felt his eyes closing once more in spite of himself, and he drifted off.

When Edward opened his eyes again, Winry was gone. Al told him she'd had to leave sooner than usual, because her parents had things of their own to deal with urgently in their kingdom, as a result of the attempt on the princess' life. Al, of course, wasted no time telling him with a knowing look that Winry had spent every moment before her departure keeping an unconscious Ed company. Before he had time to process this completely, though, his merciless brother shoved a letter into his face. "From Winry," he said.

It was not until Ed was alone in his room that night that he read it. He just couldn't do it with Al and his comments about "the spring of life" there with him. It was a short letter, but packed with such cheerfulness and kind spirit that Ed couldn't help but grin. He could barely remember a time when Winry's chirpiness was a source of irritation to him. Tonight, and many nights afterwards, it brought him joy and hope, though he'd die first than admit it to Al. Or anyone else, for that matter.

As soon as he was able to sit up properly, he decided to write back. Mere courtesy, he insisted, but no one believed him, not even himself.

_**Year 317 of the founding of Xerxes **_

It took more than a year for things to settle down between the two countries, but finally, on the summer of his nineteenth birthday, Ed was able to see Winry again. He had missed her, but not really, since they'd never stopped writing to each other after that first letter.

One summer morning, Ed found himself sitting with Winry in the shade of a big oak tree in the castle gardens. He had just challenged her to a race on horseback, having discovered from their letters that they both enjoyed the sport a great deal. Both were so fiercely competitive though, that they had galloped on and on for hours in the sun, just to prove they had more endurance than the other. Now they were lying on the grass, hot and sweaty, but filled with contentment.

Ed turned his face to the woman next to him. For she was truly a woman now. And what a woman! Brave, reckless, enthusiastic, kind…she was filled with light and filled those around her with it as well.

He loved her. He had realized that over a year ago, between the continuous exchange of letters. The feeling was no longer new to him…but he had not told her yet.

"Winry", he said, placing a hand over hers, "will you marry me?"

Winry turned her head around and laughed heartily.

"Oh, Ed," she said. "We've been betrothed since childhood. _Of course_ I'll marry you."

Ed frowned. "That's not what I meant. I…" He scratched the back of his head. This was _difficult_.

"I…" He let out a sigh and gave up. Leaning forward, he pressed his mouth to Winry's. Before she could register what he'd done, he pulled back again.

"I mean," he said, giving her his most serious look. "Will you marry me _for real_?"

Winry let out a cry of joy and threw herself on top of him. Just like that first time, so long ago. "Of course I will." It was now her turn to kiss him. "For real." And so she did.

And they lived happily ever after.


End file.
